The invention relates to the automatic upgrade of software in a computer system.
Many different types of operating systems exist that provide an environment in a computer system in which application programs can run. One family of operating systems includes the different versions of the Windows operating systems provided by Microsoft Corporation. Windows operating systems that are currently available include Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT. Examples of other common operating systems used include the Unix operating system and the OS/2 operating system.
When users upgrade their operating systems from one version to another (such as from Windows 95 to Windows 98 or from Windows 95 to Windows NT), many software components that were installed in the computer system under the original operating system may not work with the newly loaded operating system. Thus, the user may need to manually remove the original software components and reinstall new versions of the software components or otherwise manually perform other tasks to make the software components work with the newly loaded operating system.
With some operating systems, many high level application programs may be able to run without recompilation on different versions of the operating systems. In the Windows operating system, for example, such application programs are typically the user-mode or Ring 3 applications. However, certain other software components in a system, such as kernel mode or Ring 0 routines or modules (which include device drivers, dynamic link libraries, and so forth) are rarely compatible between different versions of operating systems. Thus, when a user migrates from one operating system to another, such low level software components may need to be re-installed manually in the system by the user. To do so, the user typically needs to find the diskette or CD-ROM on which such software components are stored and to manually load the components into the system.
Thus, there exists a need in which software components are automatically upgraded when a system migrates from one operating system to another.
In general, the invention according to one embodiment features a system including a program executable in the system to automatically upgrade a software component if an operating system has been upgraded.
Other features will become apparent from the following description and from the claims.